Absent You My Poems Are My True Traveling Companions, Written Out Of Loneliness, Despair, Desperation, Anguish, Suffering … And We Wait … Poem by Dennis Ryan

Thursday morning, December 14, 2023 at 8 a.m.; continued Saturday morning, December 16, 2023 at 8: 21 a.m. and Sunday morning, December 17, 2023 at 5: 50 a.m.

'But all the miles that separate disappear, now, when …'
—Three Doors Down, 'Here Without You', You Tube Music Video

Absent you my poems are my true
traveling companions, then and now—
I write out of loneliness, desperation,
despair, anguish and suffering, now
more than ever so as police long-term
planning has become crystal clear:
demoralize and frustrate in every way
possible, especially financially, to drive
you Ryans to distraction, and into despair,
poverty, depression, you against whom
we have committed violent, pernicious crimes,
crime after crime since November of 1999
when we destroyed your 1991 Toyota Corolla
in a staged police chase from Chapel Hill
into Durham, the Chapel Hill police chasing
a car thief who had reputable stolen a car
owned by a Chapel Hill police officer. Say what?
Police after police? Say that again? Police times two?
Yes, you got that right—police short-term planning
at which they then succeeded, but not now, no,
not now when the chickens have finally come home
to roost. No, not now, not now, and … We wait …
Successive happenings? Success? We wait …